


Big ego, Big plans: A conflict of interests

by MrAM



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s), Sburb Fan Session (Homestuck)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:20:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29771259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrAM/pseuds/MrAM
Summary: A bunch of friends start a sburb session. Egos clash, things go wrong. What more can I say?
Comments: 1





	1. the first step

It is May 14 2015 and there is nothing happening. The sun shines, twitters chirp and you have done nothing. You woke up a few hours ago, and the only thing that you have done in the meantime is sit at your computer. It is a very interesting computer, but you know that there is more interesting things to do. The sounds of distant laughter on the street releases you from your headphones. This slight distraction from your screen gives you time to think. Now that the gears are turning a plan is forming.

Your name is Karl, and in only five minutes you believe that you have put together a pretty good plan to alleviate your boredom. But your current actions are not important right now. What is important is you and your large variety of interests. You like jokes, superheroes, and clowns. You have never seen a clown in person, but you do admire their aesthetic greatly. So much so, you have a single poster of a harlequin on your wall. Only one thought. The rest of your wall space is consumed by superhero posters. God, you just love heroes. Their power and influence is just something you wish you could have every day. Your joke journal sits next to you on your computer. Although you do not own any more joke merch this cheap notebook is more than enough. Every time a funny idea is developed it goes right in the book fresh from the mind.

In the meantime, your task is now complete. You have found what you were looking for. A Steam page is open on your monitor. This is the perfect game for your plans. Called “SBurb” it is like the perfect RPG/sandbox game to date. Curiously, the download page reveals it has never been played before. A keener mind what commit more time to investigation. Which you have, because you are the smartest person you know. On a second tab you have a gaming journal article open. It is comically sparse and only reveals that its reviewer has never played it. Having the keen mind that you have, you have a third tab open. On this glitchy page is a game walkthrough which details all the important steps in beating it. It is very confusing, but you understand the risks. Yes, it’s perfect for your plan.

You open your instant messaging program. It’s not the best program out there, but it does allow you to edit you message history. You scroll through your contact list, looking for someone. This is an easy task because the last the last time you talked was just yesterday. Just your luck FM happens to be online.

[Server]GloriousSerpent has opened the chat with FrivolousMaestro

[GS]Hey, are you doing anything?

[FM]Not much, just reading some comics

[GS]We have something big in mind

[FM]I’m not so sure I have the time, I have to finish my architecture admissions

[GS]That doesn’t matter, this is far more urgent

[FM]What makes this so important? It’s not like the world will end

[GS]This will be our last great get-together

[GS]One last thing before we move our separate ways

[FM]I don’t have the time, I have to finish my admissions

[GS]Tony, you will have plenty of time after this to do that

[FM]Ok, but what do you have in mind?

[GS]A game

[FM]Wow, never done that before

[GS]Not just any game

[GS]A perfect team-building game that has never been played before.

[FM]So like one of those table top sessions we had

[GS]We consider it to be the perfect RPG/sandbox fusion

[GS]Playing a game tailored to us.

[GS]We mean crafting and class systems that are refreshing in their ingenuity

[FM]Enough of this ad, When do we start?

[GS]The start point is the greatest point of contention.

[GS]This is the golden hour and we should start as soon as possible.

[GS]We have started to send the game to several others, but we are running a bit low on time.

[GS]We need you to send this file to the people we have not been able to contact

[GS]Do you think you can manage that?

[FM]Oh I could do that, But to who?

[GS]We need you to send it to Jean, Kyle, Enge, and Marg. We have not been able to talk to them yet. Here is the file

[GS]OPEN_ME.zip

[FM]I just got the file, tell when I’m finished

[FM]Hello?

[Server]GloriousSerpent has left the chat with FrivolousMaestro


	2. the life cycle of a gamer

It is now 1:30 in the afternoon. As you open your eyes you don’t need a clock to know the time. It is your regularly scheduled wakeup time. Around you is not the familiar sight of your bed, but the clinical look of your lab. The smell of gunpowder lingers in the air. Broken glass and spilled chemicals are on the rubber floor. A blanket covers you. You stand up with a groan and wait until your joints stop popping in your back. You have to stop falling asleep in the lab. The mess on the table reveals the failure of your previous experiment. An impromptu mixture of volatile chemicals made an even more delicate compound. Simply said, you didn’t handle it with caution and now you have woken up in the lab again. You check for any cuts from flying glass or burns. None this time. Mom threatened to stop buying Band-Aids if you kept it up. Jokes on her, you would have waited until you got an infection before she gave in. You are going clean up the mess, but not now.

The elevator ride out of the lab was uneventful. You have to replace the fluorescents soon. The elevator door opens into the foyer of your house. You wish it could have been in your room so you’d never have to leave. The kitchen is the one place you’d still go to, it’s where all the hot sauce is. But you aren’t hungry now, and the struggle will make you stronger. You enter your room, your second favorite room in the house.

The wall of your room is covered in your interests. You find chemistry, gaming, and furry art interesting. The most prominent poster is a periodic table, where your interests started from. A few posters of disassembled computers here and there. The remainder of the posters consisted of “interesting” furry art. In a corner of the room is a pile of spent computers. Some computers died of natural causes, some suffered extreme heat and melted, some exploded, and some, well, and you spilled acid on. You pick up a functional laptop off you bed. This is the one you overclocked with Minecraft TNT explosions, and is functionally useless. You put it down and pick up your green laptop, the only intact one. This baby would be perfect for gaming if it wasn’t for the terabyte of “interesting” furry art on it. You boot up your chat program. Its buggy as hell, but it’s the only one that works.

Your messages indicate that someone has been messaging you since before noon. How selfish of them! Don’t they know that people are sleeping at that hour? Oh it’s just Tony, you though it was Karl for a moment. If it was him would have waited a few more hours before even looking at what it was. You enter the chat.

[Server]LegicidalExplosive has opened the chat with FrivolousMaestro

[FM]Jean

[FM]Jean

[FM]Jean, are you there?

[LE]What is it?

[LE]You better not send me more blueprints

[FM]What?, no

[FM]Right now, are you doing anything?

[LE]Why are you asking?

[FM]It’s important, answer the question

[FM]Ok, there is this new game

[LE]What about it?

[FM]I’ve been trying to play it, and it says I need a client player

[LE]What gave you the idea to mention it to me?

[LE]I’ve got ramen water on a hot plate

[LE]Important things happening here

[FM]You know you should lay off the ramen, the salt content and all that

[LE]Don’t see the issue with the jitters

[FM]But back to the point, do you want to be my client player?

[LE]You got anyone else to bother?

[FM]Why, do you want to me ask Trey, or Kyle

[LE]On second thought let me get a look

[FM]Okay, I’ll send it to you

[FM]OPEN_ME.zip

[FM]Don’t forget, run them together

[Server]FrivolousMaestro has left the chat with LegicidalExplosive

You download and open the zip file. You have had too many run-ins and wasted computers to get a virus. Looking in the zip file is two files, one labeled “Sburb_Client.exe” and “Sburb_Server.exe” Nothing to worry about in the code. When you execute the file, the computer breathes a heavy sign as the fans kick in. The screens turns black before a Spirograph loading screen swallows the monitor. You feel a presence around you, but your keen gamer senses pick up nothing. The screen loads up a green menu, the screen is blank and shows greyed out buttons. You click at the screen in a futile attempt to do something. You reason two outcomes: you have been played by a sophisticated bot and just downloaded a virus, or your computer has just died. It was a fitting death, years of carrying anthropomorphic erotica and a single game was the straw.

A crash from outside you room snaps your attention from your computer. Smaller thuds then follow. Sounds like a bugler is smashing a bowling ball into your walls. You peek outside of your room door. Whatever the sound was it is now gone. The holes in the drywall deny a salt-induced hallucination. You hear the sound of a large mass plopped on the floor. You enter you foyer and see a large metal cylinder with a stout base. An empty computer case on the floor floats up as if held by a ghost with Parkinson’s. It drops on the cylinder which causes it to hiss and open. You slap your hand over your eyes as a green strobing ball floats from the cylinder. You put your hand down and take a look at the thing. It has a weird Spirograph that makes your eyes just hurt looking at it. A rage fills within you as you grab the nearest object and chuck it at it. The bottle of hot sauce makes no sound as it hits, no, falls into the ball. The flashing light dims and you now that the bottle is now contained within the ball. Like the world’s worst snow globe. You walk towards the cylinder, it has the same Spirograph patter as the ball. You notice a beeping red time on the base. Hearing its beep enrages you. You don’t know what it’s counting down to. But whatever it is, it’s not going to be good.


	3. Its the end of the world, don't blame yourself now

It is now 5:20 in the afternoon. You can see the sun nearing the edge of its life. A lot has happened today, but most of it happened to others. It’s been a few hours since you moved furniture around as Karl’s server player. There was no instruction or tutorial to follow so he just yelled at empty air where he wanted these machines to go. He was now in the game on a strange world. It took some time to comprehend the fact that your friend was no longer on Earth. You would soon join him in this extra-planetary adventure. You are the last one on the chain, the one to close stack chairs and lock doors. It’s not an easy job, but you’ve done harder jobs for friends.

It’s been about two hours since you talked to your server player. Jace was a distant guy even before your graduation. You play the guitar sample. But this is just absurd. In your client’s living room is a cylinder that five hours ago beeped ominously. You open the tab with the wave file. Now that the Cruxtruder was in the game it was silent, the threat of whatever it warned is long past. Still haven’t heard anything from Jace yet. With a twist of the dial you modify the pitch. Haven’t heard any news at all. You keep the television off most of the time. Increase the timbre. It makes you anxious and gives you terrible dreams. You haven’t spoken to Karl in a few months until he messaged you out of the blue. The percussion starts too early, you move it back a few seconds. Now this game is happening and you’re just along for the ride. If you weren’t contacted you be preparing for trade school. This doesn’t sound right, it’s all wrong. You can’t make music, can’t do anything. You feel waves of heat roll over you. You are going to die. Your friends will leave you. You will die when the timer reaches zero. All because you can’t make music.

You take deep breaths reminding yourself of your musical accomplishments. You got accepted to your school of choice. Your friends haven’t abandoned you, there’re just taking a little time. When that timer reaches zero, there world isn’t going to end. Sure, you’ve seen some weird things today. But everything will be fine. Your heart has stopped pounding away and has slowed to a normal pulse.

Speaking of which, a chime from your computer shows that you have a message. You stand up from your mixing console and walk to your desk. You see a dark living room in the Sburb window. You open up you messaging program. It’s not the most popular because of its many bugs, but it’s the only one that allows you to send mp3s through it.

[Server]DreamyWarrior has entered the chat with QuartetRenovator

[DW]Are you ready Viki?

[QR]Just a moment

[QR]Are you sure you have enough space for everything?

[DW]It’s fine sweetie, if I need more space I can place stuff outside.

[QR]Take your time

In the hours since you knew of the game, you cleared part of your house in anticipation. You did move a lot of your parent’s stuff. What would they think of all these machines in the house? It dawns on you that you forgot about your legal guardians for a moment. Where they be in all of this? The spontaneous appearance of the Cruxtruder take you away from your thoughts. You are not letting Jace decide what to drop, so you heft a box of records over your shoulder and slam it on the top. A red Kernelsprite floats out of the Cruxtruder, a red glossy cylinder slides out after. You throw a ball of crumbled paper at the Kernelsprite. A creak is heard throughout the house.

[DW]I just placed the Punch Designix love

[DW]The totem lathe is in your kitchen.

You grab the surprisingly light dowel and walk it to your kitchen. You place in the lathe and it automatically locks it in place. You walk to the adjacent dining room to the Punch Designix. As if waiting for you to ask, the sylladex card from your server player appears next to you. You slide it into the machine and listen to its clicking and punching. The punched card slides out with a ding. You jam it into the lathe with urgent grace. The lathe rotates and begins shaving away at the dowel. Looking around the room, you don’t see the final machine. Did you not clear enough space? You walk to your room and look at your chat.

[DW]I could not find enough room honey, so I placed it on your front porch.

[QR]No prob

[QR]See you soon

[DW]You need to hurry, you’re running out of time love

[QR]What does that mean?

[DW]Turn around

You turn around and see nothing. You look with a little more effort and see the red timer on the Cruxtruder is down to 45 seconds. You bolt out of the room, turning sharply to snatch the dowel. You reach your foyer and fumble with the locks. Why does your family care so much about safety? You feel your heart sink as you look outside. The red sky was not tinted because of the sun, but because of fire coming down. You put the dowel on the analysis platform as your heart begins beating itself out of your chest. You look around you, the people are panicking in their front lawns as they try in vain to call distant loved ones. This is what the beeping was, the end of the world. The Alchemiter manifests a red steeple before disappearing and leaving behind a large red hand bell. Your hands shake as you grasp it. You face the door and wind up your arm. The sound of beeping cars and screams get to you. You take one last look at the world. You bring your arm down. You didn’t notice them. You parent are in front of the house looking up in horror at the red sky. The bell strikes as the sky falls.

The ringing of the bell still lingers in your ears. All you see outside the bounds of your house is white light. You are not dead, but everyone else is. You feel yourself thrash within your skin. You fall to the ground with tears pouring from your eyes. You failed. You could have saved them. But now they’re dead. You are alone, no future. There is just the game now, it’s all you have. All you deserve.


	4. True, the truth for me is not the truth for you.

You hear scratching and gnashing just outside your front door. The motley imps and ogres just outside your door are just eager to get in. They will enjoy a satisfactory joy in tearing you apart. The glee in their eyes as your health drops to zero is what they were made for. But you are counting on this. Creatures like these have poor reasoning that is unbecoming of any natural predator. This game made them perfect cannon fodder. Your Politiciansprite tried very hard to indirectly warn you about the danger these monsters pose. He even halfheartedly offered to care of them for you. What you sprite never understood was that his only purpose to you is help you into the game. That game article gave you all the guidance you needed to know about the game.

You have armed yourself in preparation, on both of your hands is your ringkind collection of gold rings. A bit like brass knuckles but far classier. You have not alchemized any armor or protection of the sort. You are in the early stages of the game and cannot afford the crafting cost. You are faster without it. Politiciansprite stands at your front door with his hand on the door knob. The only role you gave him in your plan was doorman on command.

With a beckoning of your hand, Politician sprite reluctantly let the door fly open. The imps that were right up to the face of the door are trampled by the imps right behind them. It’s like black Friday except the sweet deal here is your head. The first imp that got past the door trap made a beeline for you. You meet its face with your fist and it explodes into grist. A few more imps try to flank you but you keep enough distance to pulverize them one at a time. Imp after imp tried in vain to get within a few feet of you. Imp after imp dissolved into grist. An ogre or two thought that they up to the task and were quickly proved wrong. One ogre got close and knocked you off balance after you palmed an imp. A quick kick to the jaw took the opportunity from it and you quickly took it down.

The aftermath of your grinding was much more grist than any sensible person would know what to do with. With all of this grist you were in the lead before anyone else knew there was a race. Now that you were in the lead you could relax. Starting your land quest right after a fight is the way to go. The planet your house was now part of is the Land of Sirens and Gold. The landscape around you didn’t look one bit like gold. Instead it looked like the tall mountains and stones were covered in thin gold foil. But then again, the only gold you’ve seen was polished smooth and wearable. Once you walked a considerable distance you turned around to look at your house increasing in height by itself. Viki was a good choice for server player. With your riches, your house will reach the first, maybe second, portal on the same day. Looking around you, there was not any creature for some distance. All nearby monsters were summoned with coins flung from your second-floor windows and soon led to their death.

The red sky above the gold surroundings reminded you of gatherings long ago. There was so much hope back then. Those days with just you, Tony, Viki, and Jean. You wished those days would never end. But they did, and have not happened again for a very long time. Luckily this day, this game, will last forever. Your feet ache with the distance traveled. The hard cold metal terrain has done wonders for your ankles. But a little pain won’t stop you until your quest begins.

You reach a beach. Waves wash onto weathered-fine golden sand. The sea was blood-red, although it reflected its color from the ugly red sky. The cool waves and soft gold messaged your aching feet as you followed the coastline. A lich tried to get the jump on you with an invisible assault, but you saw the distortion a mile away. The creature reminded you of your favorite villain in the campaigns of old. In the distance you could see a consort village, the hope of rest spurned you to go a little faster. The village building were tall narrow pyramids of smooth gold. Triangular spaces in the walls showed where windows once were, but now they were boarded from the inside. The consorts were plentiful, but you couldn’t tell what they were because of thick wrappings that covered their entire form. They flocked about from building to building as if they were on tracks in spite of their heavy wrapping.

You walk to the middle of the plaza. They don’t seem to notice you at all. Their motion reminds you of wind-up automatons, capable of motion but not natural at all. You grab what you think is the shoulder of the closest one. The small consort is stopped in its tracks and attempts to face you, but he cannot see you. 

[Consort]Witch of Light is that you?

You heard about this. The guide called a classpect and it was like your video game class plus an associated cosmic aspect. You thought the game would give you a dignified class like Prince, or Lord, but you take what you get for now.

[Karl]Yes, we are here. What seems to be the problem here?

[Consort]Hero, our people were once prosperous with our land of gold and expanse of plentiful seas. We used to have hope in the future and that was our truth. But one day, our sky turned an evil shade. Come with me towards the shore to see what I mean.

The consort immediately turned towards a direction that was not the shore.

[Karl]The shore is that way.

The consort turned to another direction that was still not towards the shore.

[Consort]Thank you hero.

You grab the consort and face him toward the direction of the shore. This incident reminded you of one of Jean’s friends, Kyle. You’re not that close to him, but from what you hear of him, he’d make the same error as this consort. The consort walked in a straight line toward the beach and stopped when the waves washed over his exposed feet.

[Consort]With the sky turned this evil shade our people learned the truth of the world. The enlightened were now horrified and shocked, and flung themselves into the sea to never surface. If you look closely, at this hour you can see the recent victims to the evil sky.

You look out and just below the horizon is a few floating consort bodies. You look at the consort next to you and piece a few things together.

[Karl]Is this reason that you wear those hoods?

[Consort]Yes, it protects us. If we were to take even a glance at the light, we’d lose all hope. Everyday a few of our foolish pull up their hood only to be consumed by the sea. We must live without sight. Our people will eventually die out without any chance of recovery. But it is our way of life now, and we have to face this daily.

[Karl]Is that it? Do you give up just like that?

[Consort]You are here now, you will fix the sky.

You look up, the sky seems to stretch up infinitely. When you were young you’d imagine reaching it to touch it, barely out of reach. But now you literally have to do that somehow. The sky on Earth was blue because of the oxygen content. To change the atmosphere on such a scale here is simply impossible. How does the game expect you to do this? There is a nigh-omniscient denizen beneath the surface, but you don’t need its advice. You think back to the game guide, the land quest was often solved with a bit of ingenuity and outside the box thinking. Is this what Skaia wants you to do now?

[Karl]Why do we have to fix the sky?

[Consort]Do you need me elaborate the dangers further? The light of the sky is cursed and will bring my people to our death.

[Karl]That doesn’t make much sense. We’re standing out here is the light just fine. Beyond the normal, no inclination towards death. I think that your people have just lost hope in themselves.

[Consort]I suppose we have stopped inventing and building.

[Karl]Exactly, you live day to day in routine just to survive. Don’t you want more than that? Don’t you want to move from merely surviving to thriving? To take opportunity by the hand, and go where you’ve never gone before.

You loved this strategy. To move someone towards something that they wouldn’t have done by convincing them they can. You remember convincing your friend Jace to pursue a romantic interest of his without telling him anything he didn’t know. This time you have outsmarted the omniscient Skaia.

[Consort]I can succeed. You truly are the hero my people deserve. We can do it. Time to get this silly hood off me.

The consort grabbed his hood and pulled it from under his chin to over his face. He looked so ecstatic when he pulled it up. But the moment the red light reached eyes, his demeanor changed.

[Consort]What have I done, this is foolish. There is no hope for us. We will wither and die. The heroes lie.

The consort ran into the sea and sunk beneath the waves. You made no attempt to stop him. What he did with his life was his own prerogative. As you saw his body float to the top motionless you felt a rage boil within. Not on the death of a soulless NPC, but for a reasonable strategy. Damn! It didn’t work. How does the game expect you to restore this land? Does it want you to play just by its rules? To do exactly what it wants you to, living like a puppet for a show that you don't find funny. A conclusion forms in your mind. Just convincing someone something is true, doesn’t make it so. What you have to do, is to change the truth to what you need it to be. It doesn’t matter what color sky is. When you are done, the sky will be blue. That’s the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait. The next few chapters will come in the next few days at a more reasonable schedule.


	5. A short life with one regret

It has been a few days since you entered the game. A few days since you saw the end of the world with your own eyes. Sburb called you a “Sylph of Time”. The world that formed itself out of the void around your house is called the Land of Resonance and Quartz. The beeping from outside calls you to explore, you don’t want to go. The sight of the world ending replayed in your mind for a full day. You’d rather be inside and build up Karl’s house on your computer. Which is all you have been doing. The sight of their terrified faces in your mind kept you from doing anything more for many hours. It was on the second day when something finally changed.

[??]It seems like you are trying to play Sburb. Would you like help with that?

You look at the source of the sound. Just a minute ago it was Kernelsprite, but now it has become a glowing red paper clip and paper to match. You heard from Karl that the Kernelsprite evolves into its sprite form immediately after entry into the game. Your Kernelsprite remained inert as a glowing sphere with a ball of paper in it until a few moments ago. The sprite has been silent since it asked you a question, waiting for a response. But you were the one with questions.

[Viki]Who are you?

[Clipsprite]I am Clipsprite, your gameplay assistant. If you would like to know more about my powers and functions, please say “I’d like to learn more.”

You sit up from you bed and look out the window. This is your planet and you have not looked at it once since you arrived. The pink crystal ground spreads as far as the eye can see, occasionally a hill or jagged cliff broke the desert surface. You could only get so much of a view from a window. You pick your rapier from its sheath placing it with care in your strife deck. You head out of your room, Clipsprite following closely behind. You grab a few supplies and place it in your Tritone sylladex. Your sylladex is a bit hard to use for a novice, but you’ve had it for a few years. As you reach the front door, you remember the last time you were here. Their screams threaten to overpower you, but you drown it out long enough to open the door.

The outside was exactly as it looked from your bedroom window. But one thing that was different was the experience. You could look a blizzard from your window all you want. But you will never know the feeling of frigid wind against your face. The pink crystal seemed to stretch as far as the eye can see. In the distance you see some colorful creatures in the distance.

[Viki]What are those things?

[Clipsprite]Those monsters are ruby imps. Killing level two imps nets sixteen build grist, eight Sulfur grist, six ash grist, and one platinum grist.

At your walking speed it took a few minutes to reach the imp. The imp was standing still, not yet aggravated. It hears you sneaking up behind you and bares its teeth. You are startled by its aggression. You snap out of momentary fear as you remember you are armed. You pull out your rapier and hold it towards the imp. It hisses at you and moves to the side. You hold out your rapier, keeping the imp from getting any closer. You’ve jabbed at opponents with epees in fencing class many times. But obviously you’ve never stabbed another person with a real sword. Your mind jumps to the thought of the imp. It probably spawned with the rest of the planet. It’s just as inexperienced as you. Maybe if you tried, you could convince it to surrender and go its separate way. It tries to pounce but you swiftly pierce through its eyes. In less than a second in disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving behind various types of grist. You focus on the humming of the quartz as your heartbeat returns to normal. You killed a living for the first time, and you fear it won’t be the last.

[Clipsprite]You have leveled up. For reaching tier two you have unlocked your aspect paraphernalia.

A red glow appears in front of Clipsprite and two floating metronomes materialize. The body of them seems to be the same as the planet. The clicking of their pendulums matches the resonance of the planet. The sound reminds you of your mixing programs.

[Viki]What are these?

[Clipsprite]These are the Metro-nodes. These twin time machines are your tools of temporal manipulation. Warning, the Metro-nodes are not designed to break temporal causality. This will cause damage and potential destruction of the Metro-node and user. This is your final warning. If you have any more questions, or would like to request a user manual, say, “I’d like to learn more.”

[Viki]Thank you, go home Clippy.

Clippy speeds off in the direction of your house. You won’t need to ask for help. It’s always others that need more help than you. You’ll figure out how they work all by yourself. You inspect one of the nodes. It’s labeled with all its modes of tempo. You slide the weight up and the pendulum oscillates quicker. The beeping of the planet speeds up to match the new tempo. You’re not sure what this means and you turn to intend to ask Clipsprite later. You hear metal whining and reflexively cover your ears. You look up and see an aircraft engulfed in flame spiral into a distant canyon. It lands with a crash and the crystal ground cracks with the impact.

You reach the cliff face and look down at the craft. It’s a golden hexagonal prism with a white sigil on the top. You see the side of the craft slide open and a white humanoid makes a few steps before falling to the ground. You look at your Metro-nodes, now at you sides just below your hands. These are time machines right? They can be used to time travel, right? If you can time travel, you can save everyone. You put your hands on the top of the nodes and focus on just before the shuttle crashed. You think of the white metal smashing into the ground. You feel waves of cold grasp your torso. You think of the panic they felt, the fear in their eyes as they looked up. Every breath is a forced labor. You can save them. The image of the little white creature in pain is the only thing you see. If you leave it will die alone.

You jump when you feel a hand on your shoulder. You turn around and see a tall white thing just behind you. It looks like the creature that stepped from the shuttle except this one is much taller and has combed blonde hair.

[??]Don’t choose the option that seems obvious, but ultimately unfounded. Instead use what you have and make the most of that my child.

It looks at you as if waiting for acknowledgement. Seeing your perplexed disposition as satisfactory, a green Spirograph appears before it. It walks into the portal and leaves you alone again. The beeping is the only thing you hear. A half-baked idea forms in your mind. You dash forward towards the cliff edge and slide your feet down its face. The momentum pushes you into a run as you make your way to the lying creature. You walk close to it and crouch down. Up close you see a piece of metal stabbed into its side, the source of its weakness. Red blood drips from its wound at a steady pace. You push its side until its face up. Its white shelled face looks abstractly feminine and suffering a lot of pain. You grab one of your Metro-nodes. You remember what that mysterious alien said to you. You focus on her wound and slide the weight down. The pendulum oscillates a bit slower now. The beeping of the planet has not changed, but when you look at her injury the bleeding has slowed.

She opens her eyes and looks at you with infinite gratitude. She speaks a language with no words, but you understand her perfectly. She call her kind Carapacians. She speaks quickly for she knows she does not have much time. She tells you of her life, hopes, fears and doubts. All you can do is comfort her with sweet words of compassion. She was a soldier for the golden moon of Prospit. You tell her that she died for a noble cause. She says that she didn’t want to die like this, for she dreamed of being a librarian. She looked satisfied after telling you her most intimate memories before she closed her eyes for good.

You tap your foot on the ground with a specific tune. Your sylladex recognizes the rhythm and produces a shovel and pickaxe. You spend a few hours cracking crystal and burying the Carapacian in the hard ground. Your thoughts focus on the un-words and story of the soldier. The other bodies remained in the shuttle, the fire in it will give them a painless cremation. There was no way to save them. You could not save the Carapacian soldier if you tried. But at least the final moments of her life were not in pain. The thought of her death leaves a little pain in your heart, but it will heal in time.


	6. And that's why we were rivals.

It has been a few days since you entered the medium. Unseen voices announced your entry by calling you a “Prince of Doom”. Upon the teleportation of your house, you were given a whole planet for yourself. The Land of Enterprise and Lithium if you remember correctly. You remember first looking out your windows immediately after entry. Your house was surrounded on all sides by tall steel structures. Girders and support braces, large rusted pipes leading to plants far away. Like the middle of a steel mill except the architects have never heard the word “efficient”. Tony insists that your house looks like _Up_ , but you don’t watch movies so it means nothing to you.

You have seen some of the buildings outside you house. They are less like buildings, and more like industrial steel tumors when that you think of them. Navigating them will be incredibly treacherous but you been preparing for the inevitability of physical activity for as long as you remember. Sharpening your will into an unbreakable scalpel. You once held your hand in boiling water for a whole minute because someone halfheartedly dared you. Jokes on them, you did it! Five dollars never felt more earned. The interiors are definitely not OSHA compliant and are filled with underlings. You would be out there besieging the towers by yourself, but someone offered a hand.

Imps and occasionally an ogre or two got the bright idea to enter your house. The grist they left behind was enough to build your house up to some of the Spirograph portals. You stand on the current “roof” of your house just under a portal. It glows green and spins for a moment before Kyle falls out. He misses the unmarked landing zone you cleared and fall at your feet. He looks to be dead for a moment before he pulls his head to look at you. He looks pitiful.

[Kyle]Sorry about that.

[Jean]You haven’t done anything yet.

[Kyle]I fell on your roof.

[Jean]You don’t apologize for falling idiot! Falling is a free action.

The game says he’s a “Bard of Blood”. But this doesn’t mean anything to you. Whatever he is, you seen him for just a few seconds and he’s already on your nerves.

[Jean]You got the acid?

[Kyle]Yeah, but I don’t have that much. I have as much as I could put on myself.

[Jean]How much do you have?

[Kyle]Like five or seven.

[Jean]Gallons?

[Kyle]No bottles.

Kyle points to his legs, to which he has bound several water bottles filled with green liquid.

[Jean]How much do you have in your sylladex?

[Kyle]…

[Jean]Do you have anything in these?

You pull a blank sylladex card from you Hotbar sylladex.

[Jean]This, do you have anything in these?

Kyle stares at you blankly while he takes a few seconds to register what you asked him. His demeanor shifts from vague confusion into that of revelation.

[Kyle]When you said bring some acid from my land I thought I should carry it.

[Jean]When I ask you to do something at least be smart about it.

[Kyle]I thought that’s what you meant.

[Jean]Kyle, when have I-

You stop yourself as a much bigger and more significant question comes from your tongue.

[Jean]Have you even used the sylladex I sent you a while ago?

[Kyle]I have, it’s still in the box.

[Jean]Well why aren’t you using it?

[Kyle]It seems hard to use.

[Jean]It’s literally designed-

[Jean]Just shut up and take this.

You hand Kyle a spare sylladex. You have specific items like spare sylladexes for emergencies. You guess Kyle’s inability to follow commands or even logic is an emergency now. After passing it, you move towards the turbo-lift in the middle of the “roof”. You let your server do whatever he wanted to with your house, complete autonomy. But if there’s two things you he had to do, it was to keep your elevator, and to upgrade that elevator. Kyle steps into the elevator just as the doors close. You click the button for the ground level and the doors open immediately, it’s that fast. Progress never felt so good.

You walk through your foyer to the now automatic front door. It opens for you and there is just enough space for Kyle to squeeze through the closing door. It only opens for you, the best security you know. You walk fearlessly through the minefield around your house. Your mom never let you put mines in the lawn no matter how much you requested. But now that she has unfortunately passed away and with the wonders of an Alchemiter, you can have all the mines you want. The grist left behind by cocky imps shows you a mine free path to the towers. The towers form encircle your house with the only way out being through one-way hatches imps emerge from. You approach the closest one. You wordlessly hold out your hand to Kyle and he hands you one of his acid bottles. This time he retrieves it from his Roulette sylladex. You wonder where he got that.

The poured acid causes the rusted lock mechanism to slide off of the hatch like chemical sludge. You kick the steel door and it falls forward with a clang. The room ahead is filled with thick pipes from the floor to the ceiling. It would look like any other boiler room if it weren’t for the sheer size of it. You pass more and more pipes on your way through the towers. Strange. It seemed like just until a few hours ago imps were swarming your property like its Black Friday. Now these industrial bowels are completely empty. More and more dusty pipes, and still no sign of life to be seen.

You come across an elevated platform that offered your first chance at escalation. You pull out a length of sticky rope (rope alchemized with double sided tape) and throw it over the railing. It sticks with a slap and you climb up to the platform above. You’re lucky you brought this rope, if not you’d have to stop pretending to need Kyle with you. The door and the end of the walkway has a busted lock on it. You decide that exercising caution is the best option. You reach into your strife deck and pull out RGBlaster. It’s a pretty nice wand if you must say so. Made from one of you wands and an unused RGB gamer keyboard. Colorful fire erupts from the tip and blows the door right of its hinges. Whatever is in there has been given a fair warning. If it tries to attack, that’s its fault for being an idiot. You look at Kyle and see that he is poised with his rbbrbandkind. He may be a little slow from time to time, but at least he came armed.

[??]Jean?

Whatever was in past the door comes out the room. It’s Karl. He’s wearing some weird getup that you assume was alchemized from clothes and old books.

[Karl]Jean and Kyle in the flesh!

[Jean]What the hell are you doing here?

[Karl]That’s no way to greet an old friend. The proper greeting in this case is “Hi, I’m doing well.”

Karl motions for you to follow him as he walks back in the room. You follow him into a room that looks very similar to every other room here except for its open ceiling. You see Trey against a wall focused on his Ispy sylladex menu. He waves to you as you enter.

[Jean]What are you doing here?

[Karl]Just wanted to catch up with an old friend. Along with spreading the news. We’ve got big plans that every player needs to know about. So we have been traveling from planet to planet to get the word out.

[Jean]What are you talking about? This isn’t some game where you can waste time on pitching your damn pyramid scheme.

[Karl]Watch that attitude, you could bite with that. Sburb is a game and we suggest taking it a bit easier.

Karl’s face contorts into a generic customer support smile that feigns composure. It fills you with rage.

[Kyle]Couldn’t you have sent us a message?

[Karl]That is true, we could have sent a message. But we believe that face-to-face communication is much better.

[Jean]How did you get here?

[Karl]Walking.

[Jean]No dumbass, the planet. How did you get to the planet?

[Karl]As you know the portals above the houses connect all the planets together. And this-

Karl blows a long balloon from thin air and twists it into a weird balloon animal. A fiery jet pack is retrieved from his balloon animal sylladex. You wonder why Karl didn’t choose a normal sylladex like the rest of the players.

[Karl]-makes the landing much easier.

[Jean]So you’ve been on my planet for hours? Doing what?

[Trey]You will say, “But why didn’t you fly to the house?”

[Kyle]But why didn’t you fly to the house?

[Karl]Good question Trey. This jet pack only allows for cruising or descension. Its maker didn’t design them for actual flight, but they are good for landing on hard terrain.

[Jean]So you came all this way for an ad? That’s a new one.

[Karl]I’ll have you know we’ve been traveling to all of the planets before yours. All sorts of environments separated by unimaginable distance. We’ve seen worlds of crystal, beach, and paper.

[Trey]You will say, “Wait, there’s a beach planet?”

[Kyle]Wait, there’s a beach planet?

[Trey]You will say, “Stop doing that!”

[Karl]Yes there is a beach world-

[Kyle]Stop doing that!

You chuckle at Trey teasing Kyle, it feels good to have a laugh at Kyle. It’s been a while since you’ve heard Trey speak outside your online matches. You catch yourself with your guard down and remember the anomaly that caused you to travel so far.

[Jean]Did you kill all the imps?

[Karl]Why yes, we’ve been here for hours. We might as well clean up if we’re polite guests.

[Trey]There used to be a lot more imps around here.

[Jean]That was my grist!

[Karl]I’m sorry that grist is long gone. See it as an opportunity to start your land quest a bit earlier. After all, on our expedition we passed a few of your consorts.

Trey goes to Karl and shows him something on his iwatch. Trey reaches into his Ispy sylladex and pulls out his jet pack.

[Karl]As much as we love to chat we must get going now. We have players waiting for us.

[Trey]You will say, “What are you doing? It’s too low for you to fly.”

[Kyle]What are you doing? It’s too low for you to fly.

[Karl]Good point Trey. In just a few seconds you will see.

You are knocked to your feet by a door that wasn’t there before. The door frame in the middle of the room flickers between black and white. The inside is full of impossible shapes and makes you want to throw up just looking at it. All this mental training and shapes are what gets you. You can barely hear the voice of Tony come from the door.

[Tony]Come on hurry, it’s about to shift in here.

[Karl]This is Non-Euclidean space. Its ideas like these that we will discuss at the upcoming conference in a few days. It is in the tallest tower on our world. Don’t be late!

Tony falls back in, Karl jumps in, and Trey follows him. The door closes and you are left in a dark room. As your eyes return to normal following that visual assault, you see Kyle is just as confused as you are. You only have one thing in your mind that still functions and its hate for Karl. Pure unaltered hatred for every fiber of his being. Completely rational and justified. You guess things are back to normal between the two of you. Just how you were a long time ago: rivals.


	7. We present the future. Don't mention our past!

This is the day you have been waiting for. All this traveling and grinding. All this hard back-breaking work has been worth it. You were able to meet face-to-face with all of the other eleven players. You could have used your chat client, but they could pretend to not see it. Since you were there in person they could not deny that an interaction with you took place, guaranteeing their presence on the Land of Sirens and Gold.

You look past the curtains of your makeshift stage at your waiting guests. You had Viki put a stage on the high floors of your house. The base of your house structure was regular house modules. Around the halfway point, you had the modules switch to sleek glass modernism. You had to steal, no, borrow the modules from Tony’s crafting pile. It’s where you get most of your equipment that aren’t weapons. He doesn’t even notice when an item or ten goes missing. But that, doesn’t matter much now, you have a show to put on and players to dazzle.

The automatic shutters cover the wide windows on two sides of the conference room. You had these shutters installed specifically to enforce the corporate atmosphere. You click your remote and walk out. The light of the projector highlights your entry. You look around with a calm smile as your fellow players end their conversations to look at you. All of them are here, even the trouble players.

[Karl]Ladies and Gentlemen of the Incinisphere. I have gathered you all here for an opportunity. Every single one of us has been given a chance for greatness. More specifically a wonderful world of your own. We have many things to do and a lot of places to go. Building your towers is hard work. As you know as your tower increases in altitude that grants access to higher and higher portals. Portals that lead to the other worlds. Clearing dungeons and solving quests becomes exponentially easier when it’s done with a group of friends. Coordinating is the easy part. But the hard part is getting everyone onto your world. Different portals at different levels requires lots of planning just to get everyone on the same world. And let’s get more basic than that. What if you just want a break from your world? Would you want to be on the Land of Summer Breeze and Sand, or be on the Land of Hermits and Acid. No offence. Now to get to the boring part. In order to get from world to world we have a plan for a portal network. This is not like the portals above your house. These are mechanical programmable rings that can connect to any other portal in the network. This means instant transportation from your world to any world of your choosing. Sounds perfect too good to be true. And that is true. That’s why you are here. Every portal is a complex piece of alchemical machinery and individually has a high grist cost. That’s why when you invest in this initiative you contribute to something greater. Remember, it’s your world, go! Thank you for listening. Pledge forms are in the middle of the table. The floor is now open for questions.

The audience seems satisfied with your presentation and has already made up their minds. A few hands grab pledge forms. Even your rival Jean seems interested in the idea. This might be the most daring plan you have made, second only to the Sburb game, that’s a success. Although in terms of planning the beach is above it, but you don’t like to think about that day.

[Marg]What do these portals cost?

The single voice pieces through the small conversations and rattling of pens. You don’t know Marg that well. She’s more of Tony’s and especially Viki’s friend and that friend distance does not help the fact that she does not like you.

[Karl]The portal network is expensive, which is why this project needs your help.

Marg’s dislike of you isn’t like that of Jean’s. Jean hates you because of differences in opinion and tastes in media, but that hate is reinforced by years of respectful pseudo-rivalry with each other. Marg simply hates your guts.

[Marg]How do you expect us to pay for this when you kill all the monsters on your ‘travels’?

This last comment echoed off the glass windows and silenced the room. The tone of the room changed as the people who filled out pledge forms looked upon them with mild regret.

[Karl]When we were traveling from world to world there were monsters that were in the way. Those monsters shouldn’t be a danger to the guests or hosts.

[Tony]The amount of monsters was a bit less than normal.

[Josh]Bro, I didn’t see them for a few days

[Jean]My minefield is still unused.

[Enge]Yeah you didn’t have to do that for me.

[Luke]That was cool to get rid of the imps, but the liches were the only thing up to my power level.

[Jean]What the hell! You didn’t leave any grist behind.

[Kyle]I thought it despawned.

[Jace]You could have left the loot love.

[Marg]Why do we need to give our grist to you? You are the richest player in the game.

[Jean]He spent it on that new outfit.

[Marg]Viki, you’ve seen how much grist he has, tell us he doesn’t need any more.

You notice Viki wasn’t responding to Marg because she was having one of her anxiety attacks. You could tell Marg that, but you don’t need another person verbally attacking you now. Marg is being a pain as always. You hate how whenever she has a grievance about anything she always gets others mad about it to. Viki did say she was a Page of Rage, so this just might be her nature. You hope she doesn’t God-tier like you have. There’s no point in worrying about what could happen, because right now you need a new strategy. You did just learn the art of deflection from Politiciansprite.

[Karl]This only a suggestion. If you choose to, you have no responsibility to contribute to the public good.

[Jean]Speak normal! Also, what is up with that outfit? You’re stupid if you spent my grist on that. Is that another plan of yours?

[Luke]You’ve got Tony wearing a supersuit.

You realize that this situation isn’t good. They’ve noticed Tony’s God-tier outfit. Now if they just noticed yours, there wouldn’t be a problem. You do look pretty dashing with your orange robes, gold rings, and large golden arm hoops. But it really wouldn’t help your case right now if they asked where he got it. You remember telling him that in order to ascend he has to die. But it was not his idea. You know that they’ll lynch you if they heard how you beat him with your ringed hands. Beat him to an inch of his life and stomped out his last breath. Telling them that you didn’t know bombs were an option would be the worst defence imaginable. Luckily he seems too traumatized by his ascension to make any mention of it.

[Jace]Baby, I think you should just give the recipe to us and we can make on our own time.

[Karl]Now that is a good idea.

[Josh]Bro why didn’t you do that in the beginning.

[Jean]You said you’re smart, yet you can’t even come up with a good strategy.

You mentally wipe your brow. The group has shifted the talk away from your character to your plan. That’s good, you can shift the discourse positive with a good amendment to your proposal. You scan the conference table. The main heat of the argument has disappeared and people have shifted back into quiet apathy. You look at the Rogue of Life Nico, and you heart skips a beat. He is trying to erase or rewrite his original pledge amount to no avail. You completely forgot about the pledge papers. You had them alchemized so they could never be changed once written on.

[Nico]Hey, why can’t I erase this?

[Karl]We’ve all been through grammar school. You should know that you can’t erase pen marks by now.

[Nico]I brought a pencil, and the trash eraser is doing nothing.

[Trey]The next thing you say is “These paper guarantee that every applicant knows what he is getting into.”

[Karl]These paper guarantee that every applicant knows what he is getting into.

You find it very helpful to have a Seer of Mind use that trick of his to undermine an opponent. But when it’s used on you, now that annoys you to no end. This insult is that straw that broke the camel’s back. You back is against the wall and you are in desperate need of a new plan. You have to abandon the portal plan, your current objective is avoiding social death. You notice that Viki is still having one of her signature panic (or is it anxiety?) attacks. Politiciansprite didn’t have to teach you the art of redirection.

[Karl]Stop for a second, all of you! Can’t you see how much stress you’re putting Viki in?

You walk over to Viki’s chair and grab the back of it to wheel it out of the room. Thank Skaia that Viki put sliding office chairs in this room. You are mildly surprised that Marg didn’t try to stop you from escaping with her best friend. But you’ll celebrate your small victories at another time.

[Karl]Listen to our voice. Focus on your breathing. Feel the soft cushion of the seat. Look at the clear blue sky.

Your clever escape had three positive outcomes on the situation. One: You got out of there without your name dragged further through the mud. Two: You did so under the guise of helping Viki, which means that the players will see you as kind. You hope that it means Marg thinks better of you, regardless of how slight the difference is. Three: By leaving the discussion of your project, the group was left without a common enemy. Without you to pile on, they had to get back to discussing alternatives to the portal network. They ended going up with a gradual funding and creation process. But whatever they chose, it was based off your initial proposal and they will be satisfied with it. Whether or not you end up with literal mountains of grist doesn’t matter. You changed their outlook on the game. And truth be told, that’s exactly what you wanted all along.


	8. Sometimes, you find that the power was within you all along

The past few days have been hard for you. You spent many hours building that office building section of Karl’s house. You suffered an anxiety attack at the meeting at LoSaG. Your recent dreams have not been pleasant one bit. And you haven’t produced any music since you arrived. Your head has been cluttered and you are in desperate need of a break. You have thought of taking a vacation on the Land of Summer Breeze and Sand, but Enge said his denizen has been acting up so it’s not safe. Besides, where you need to go shouldn’t be so far. A little dungeon crawling on the Land of Resonance and Quartz with a friend wouldn’t hurt.

Marg arrived on your world not too long after noon, or noon equivalent. She came armed with her guitarkind Fender Bender Buster and appropriate supplies. She had her Bonds sylladex with her and spent many breaths complaining about its features. It’s no Pyramid sylladex because it at least it remains between the user and the “invisible” lender that only allows access to cards once they’ve matured. The Encryption sylladex at least allowed for you to access cards once they were encrypted, but Bonds has no clear pattern to what is and is not accessible. But it does net you grist earning based on the market value of un-matured cards. Marg’s made tens of grist through this feature. You think Marg only chose this sylladex to have something to complain about. It’s been a while since you’ve talked.

After walking and talking for a few hours you arrive at the dungeon of your choice. ‘See in the Sea Music Factory’ was a high-level dungeon that would get you the grist you desperately need. You aren’t outside much, so your tower is the shortest out of all the players. According to Karl’s leaderboard (which he is glued to the top of) you rank dead last in total grist earnings. By beating this dungeon, you will move up a level, with Marg at your side, sky’s the limit!

You reach the outside of the gate. This gate surrounds a tall mountainous fortress where your consorts say nothing good comes from. The gate alone is tall as several houses stacked on top of each other, and you’re sure that even that weight won’t budge the doors. Now that you see this barrier to entry you reconsider the whole operation. Maybe you’re just not high enough level for it. You faced a few imps here and then, but are you up for this?

[Marg]What are you standing there for? We don’t have all day. Open the door!

You realize she’s right. You’ve traveled too far to give up now. You feel Marg’s words ignite a power within you. You unsheathe Edge of Glory and hold it in your right hand and summon one a Metro-node in your left. You will never be able to open the doors through sheer force. You charge up a wide swing and focus on the Metro-node. You focus on the cold steel of your blade, the perfect alchemized edge, the pointed tip. You focus on your breathing, it’s fast, full of power. Not enough to knock down heavy doors, but focused onto a thin edge. The weight slides lower on the nodes without touching it and the pendulum rocks slower. The blade meets the weathered sandstone doors. No matter how hard and how thin a blade’s edge was it could never cut stone. But in time, water cuts canyons through plains. Your blade sinks into the hard door as if it was soft mud. The blade finishes its swing, throwing caught stone. You reset your arms and swipe again. You slash at the door several times, weathering away deep cuts in its surface.

Your Metro-node returns to the beat of the planet as you catch your breath. Your cuts make a circular glowing outline into the door. You give a nodding approval to Marg as she walks towards your good work. She winds a wide swing with her guitar and hits the middle of the cuts. With a thundering boom the whole outlined area slides through the hole. A long tunnel burrows through the rock surface of the door. You both jog through your improvised entrance to the interior of the factory. That combo move you pulled outside wouldn’t have been necessary if you were at a higher level. But if there’s anything you like about Sburb, it’s that Skaia lets you do things your way. You reach the inside of the thick gate wall. The inside reminds you of a loading bay behind a supermarket. Multiple floors with platforms for loading. Crystal cargo in large boxed waiting to be moved. Workers shoulder to shoulder trying to get here and there. You are lost in the sights and sounds of beautiful disorder. The humming crystals soothes your ears. You would love to spend hours walking around.

[Marg]Viki?

Oh yeah. You remember you’re in a dungeon with hostile underlings waiting to kill you. Edge of Glory lost its edge after weathering through the front gate. You throw it at the closest Lich and hum a tune. Your sylladex recognizes the beat and releases Khopsicle. You stab at another lich, pulling sharply to free the old blade. A basilisk bites onto your leg. The pain sends shock through your body. The pain erupts from your mouth in a scream. You push through and stab the basilisk through the eyes. The monster disappears and several liches take its place. You make wide sweeps of your blade to swat them away. If you are surrounded again you don’t think you’ll make it out.

Your leg stings as you make a running stab into the back of a giclopse. The creature bellows in pain. You take a short dagger you stowed in your boot and use it to scale the beast. Now that you are on its head the creature cannot hit you without harming itself. The giclopse was brave (or foolish) enough to punch the slide of its own head to unbalance you. You stab your sword into its eye and twist it deeper. The giclopse disappears under your feet and you fall. You hold your metro-node close as you use it to slow your descent. Looking out of the pile of grist you are in, you can’t see Marg anywhere. You notice all the underlings are not paying attention to you and are all heading to another part of the factory.

You run through a few crystal halls, slicing liches with their backs turned to you. You arrive at the place where the monsters are concentrated. This is a much larger room and you distinctly notice that there is not a single imp here. The smallest things are liches, and all the giants surround a single point in the room. You think that Marg might be there. As if confirming your suspicions, an Acheron explodes and a guitar flies from it before sliding to a stop at your feet. You grab the guitar and run towards the circle, bashing underlings with your new weapon. You are not proficient in guitarkind so all this does is confuse you opponent long enough for you to slice at their necks.

After cutting through an ogre you reach the center where Marg is holding off underlings from all sides. She looks bruised and beaten from fighting, her rock star makeup is faded. She noticed you with a hopeful look, before it turned to horror.

[Marg]Behind you!

You don’t remember the impact, but the next thing you felt was the cold ground. You couldn’t hear anything over the buzzing in your ears. You didn’t know if you activated your Metro-nodes, but time went slow. A large monster towered over you. It was a mountain of strength with unbreakable skin. Far larger than the giclopses and even the towering Acherons was the Tarrasque. You’ve never seen one before, but that was the word that came to mind when you saw it. You don’t even register its claw coming towards you. Marg grabs and throws you out of the way, taking the full force of the strike. As Marg hits the ground next to you, you heard a cracking sound.

You crawl over to Marg, hurriedly tapping the ground. A spiral pendant falls from your sylladex into your open palm. You activate the force field just as the tarrasque’s terrible claws comes down. You hear Marg groan as she reaches her hand out to access her Bonds sylladex. She quickly moves cards around before stopping suddenly. You notice her outstretched hand is red with blood. Choked laughter comes before barely audible words.

[Marg]The vitality gel has not matured yet.

[Viki]W-What?

[Marg]I ca-can’t open the cards.

You feel cold tears run down your cheek.

[Viki]No, you’re just not opening the right.

Marg goes silent and a weight tears through your heart. You pull out your Metro-node and focus on Marg, focus on her soft, labored breathing. The weight slides down and the pendulum slows. You can’t help her now, but you have to help her soon. Just outside the force field the Tarrasque watches in sadistic glee. You look past it towards the entrance of the room. You can make it, you just run have to go faster than you ever have gone before. You stand up, your heart speeds up in preparation. You have to find help, but first you must reach the exit. You can do it. You take a deep breath and push yourself out of the field. 

You push your feet against the hard ground pushing you forward. The wound on your leg threatens to hold you down. Put you push through. You focus on moving as fast as you can. You see the exit, it’s close now. You can see the light just behind it. The floor flies out from beneath you. The wall slams into your slide. The floor crashes into you, you can’t feel some of your limbs. The pain washes over you all at once. Your heart spills blood out of open wounds. You see the tarrasque waiting for you to move again. Waiting to push you down again. You feel a sob in your throat, and tears streaming down the sides of your nose. The tarrasque grows bored of waiting for a reaction and raises its claws above you. You pull out your second Metro-node, your first is currently keeping Marg safe. Every second it clicks, every second you waste. You firmly grab the Metro-node in your left hand. With whatever leftover strength you have you grab the pendulum and forcefully lock in place. The beat stops.

You wait for what feels like an eternity before opening your eyes. The tarrasque’s claw hovers just above you, completely still. You stand up and walk to the exit, your Metro-node following just behind you. You reach the end of the crystal hall. You look at the hordes of underlings waiting to swarm into the room with Marg. You hear a dong and your insides burn. The crystal around you cracks but holds its shape. Time doesn’t like what you’ve done with it. You make your way out of the improvised entrance. The crystal ground cracks in an instant before holding its shape. You have escaped and are free from danger. You grab the Metro-node and release the pendulum from its lock to let time flow normally. The moment it unlocks, the energy within releases and the time machine explodes in your face. You hit the ground hard. You try to move but your body burns. You feel tired, it’d be easy to just rest here.

You see a white figure in your fading vision. It picks you up, and you feel long blonde hair on your face. Green light surrounds you and you are lowered back onto hard ground. Fitting for you to die now. You think of Marg slowly dying along in that dungeon. You think of the people of Earth, they didn’t deserve what you inflicted on them. But at least their fiery death was instant. You feel fresh tears flow down dry skin. You deserve this pain, this anguish. This is your penance you think to yourself as it all fades to black.

You feel fine now. Is this the sweet release of death? No. You feel better than you ever have. You feel powerful. The sky around you is a sharp blue, the ground is checkered in black and white. But this isn’t what matters now. Marg is still is danger. You go up until the sky darkens and the planets come into view. You fly towards the world of pink crystal. The small specks on the surface grow into the familiar gate of the dungeon. You pick up speed in your descension. You fly past the gate right into the crystal halls. The tarrasque is still concerned with your last known location. But it is not a concern to you now. You land in the force field with Marg. Marg remains suspended just a few moments before death. You hold out your hands over her and focus. You listens to the steady beat of your heart, the natural rhythm of the planet. Time passes. The wounds on Marg scab and seal externally. Marg opens her eyes.

[Marg]Viki?

You put your arms around Marg in a tight embrace. You feel tears, but these are not from pain. You link your hands together and fly out of the crystal skylight with Marg. Your last Metro-node struggling to keep up. It doesn’t matter what happens now. Because no matter how bad things get, you have the time to make it right.


End file.
